Rain is a gift to Christmas tree farmers

Rain is a gift to Christmas tree farmers

By WHITNEY HOLMES
6 News Anchor/Reporter

FARRAGUT (WATE) -- When many East Tennesseans were complaining about all the rain this year, Christmas tree farmers like Susana Dimmick sees it as an early Christmas present.

“It was good for us it was good for us,” said Dimmick of Dimmicks' Choose and Cut Christmas Tree Farm off McFee Road in Farragut.

The rain helped her seedlings survive and the older trees get healthy.

“Our trees look great because of the rain. The six and seven footers grew faster this year,” said Dimmick.

This is something Dimmick doesn't take for granted.

For about the past five years a drought has forced Dimmick's trees and her family's 25-year-old business struggle to for survival.

“We would plant seedlings 1,000 at a time and lose 100 percent of our seedlings. We had some growth up until this year and now they have just blossomed out,” she said.

The drought effects can been seen in bare patches on the farm that Dimmick said should be full of healthy trees. She says, the drought decimated seedlings and trees up to three years old.

While the rain may help this year, Dimmick isn't out of the woods just yet.

The effects of the drought will be felt for several tree generations from now.

“The drought was so severe that everyone including us is going to have fewer trees available three to five years from now,” she explained.

Christmas tree farmers are different than regular farmers because their crops run on a roughly five year cycle rather than a one year cycle.

Dimmicks' officially opens the day after Thanksgiving. For more information call the farm at (865) 966-9517.